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“Outstanding service. They were extremely careful delivering the extra large container into our driveway.” -- A. L. GARNER
Listen to the story here. From Keith Pickett’s front yard just east of Bakersfield you can see the trees of where the official city begins. He’s on the board of a tiny water system with less than 30 homes. It’s called the East Wilson Road Water Company and the water he’s washing his dishes with is polluted with nitrates. "Hopefully at some point the litigation will be resolved and we can recover those costs at a zero impact to our customers." - Mike Mares, California Water Service “It doesn’t taste funny, but because it’s high in nitrates we do not cook with it, we don’t drink it,” says Pickett as he loads his dishwasher with a mug. “But we shower and use it for everything else.”Drinking nitrates is most harmful to infants. It restricts the flow of oxygen to the body and can lead to so-called “blue baby syndrome” or even death. Pickett’s neighborhood discovered the problem eight years ago. They’ve known about it for a long time, but the fix hasn’t come yet because they’re district is too small and solving the problem is really expensive.“To do this i... (Valley Public Radio)
The Kern County Coroner’s Office has identified the man who was struck by a city of Bakersfield trash truck, and who later died from his injuries.The man was identified as Michael Yunk, 64, of Bakersfield, who was hit by the truck about 6:06 a.m. in the 200 block of Jefferson Street on Thursday morning, and who later died at Kern Medical at 12:41 p.m.The Bakersfield Police Department said the incident happened when Yunk attempted to pass the city of Bakersfield trash truck on a bicycle. Yunk, however, lost control of the bike and crashed in front of the trash truck. Police said the driver of the trash truck did not see Yunk and ran over him.The driver then exited his vehicle and summoned medical aid. The man was taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition.Police said drugs, alcohol, and speed does not appear to be a factor for the driver of the sanitation truck.Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to call the Bakersfield Police Department (661) 327-7111. (kernradio)
It's not bad by the tracks," she said, "we had even noted it (the trash) last year."Butler, joined in the van by other Keep Bakersfield Beautiful board members and Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, was participating in the annual Mayor's Community Appearance Survey.The survey, formerly called the "Litter Index," is a look at litter in nine different areas of the city. They began at City Hall and travelled along many of the main roads in Bakersfield, including Chester Avenue, Wible Road, White Lane, Ashe Road, Westside Parkway, Calloway Drive, Panorama Drive and Beale Avenue. Keep America Beautiful, which Keep Bakersfield Beautiful is affiliated with, requires these surveys to track litter levels throughout the city.The review goes from 1, which is "no litter," to 4, at "extremely littered," and in addition to submitting results to the national group, KBB uses them to find areas of the city that need organized clean-up efforts, where the city needs to do work, or in cases where property owners need to be contacted.For example, surveyors found a case on Tuesday along Truxtun Avenue just after Beale Avenue turns into Truxtun where a business's parking lot fence had collected a bulky line of trash.John Enriquez, who has done the survey since it started 17 years ago, said they've seen an improvement over the years, as the score was at 2-plus or "slightly littered." Tuesday's average was 1.61."We really didn't see anything severe," Enriquez said.He credited the outreach KBB has done to the community a... (The Bakersfield Californian)